Text, Mark Behnke
Images of Christian Audigier, courtesy of Christian Audigier’s LA offices
Images of Christian Audigier runway show, by Dan Lecca, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz.
Edited by Vivian G. Kelly
ABOUT ED HARDY
Ed Hardy is one of the artists who is responsible for the increasing artistic esthetic that allowed tattooing to move from sailors on the docks to young men and women on the town. No naval enlistment required. Ed Hardy's contribution was after studying in Japan during the 70's he fused that Asian influence onto traditional tattooing as he was taught the art, by Sailor Jerry, in Honolulu. He has now moved on to using other canvases besides the human body and most recently has been doing his painting on porcelain.
ABOUT CHRISTIAN AUDIGIER
In 2004 Christian Audigier, fresh off the success of creating the biker chic look around Von Dutch, as head designer, licensed Ed Hardy. He was going to use the same technique, successful at Von Dutch, of marketing to the famous and opening Ed Hardy stores worldwide. You couldn't walk down Collins Avenue during Spring Break without counting at least 10 Von Dutch caps on the heads of College revelers,and tee shirts and Von Dutch gear in every other window. Mr. Audigier has quickly and effectively translated the tattoo vibe in the same way he did the biker creed for Von Dutch. As all good designers eventually do his attention has now turned to the scented world and earlier this year two new scents were released, Ed Hardy for Men and Ed Hardy for Women. Both come in packaging that looks a lot like a Mexican prayer candle. The men's version has a snarling tiger on a field of black and the women's has a skull, heart and roses, floating on pink, with a banner that states "love kills slowly". The packaging gets the tattoo atmosphere dead on as these have the look and feel of the "flash" you see on the walls of any tattoo parlor you would ever happen to find yourself in. The question now is do the contents live up to their packaging?
Ed Hardy for Men
For both of these scents Mr. Audgier turned to Givaudan and enlisted two different noses to create these scents. For the men's scent Olivier Gillotin was the man for the job. Mr. Gillotin had just created one of 2007's most well-received fragrances in Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille. Mr. Gllotin describes Ed Hardy for Men as "Tattooed Woody Floral". Upon first wearing it the predominant notes are citrus and bergamot which are a pretty standard opening these days. It is in the transition into the heart notes that things get interesting as a woody, mentholated, note appears; which according to the notes is Thuja. Thuja is one of the ingredients in the notorious liquor, Absinthe. From here amber solidly takes over along with a very masculine redwood note. There is a very slight musk and I think this could've done with a little more musk to round out the base. For a scent which promised me tattoos I ended up finding myself more in mind of "Moulin Rouge" and the absinthe swilling bohemians there, as I can see those characters wearing this scent. This is a solidly constructed mainstream designer scent and it should do very well with those in their 20's and 30's who want a night–out scent that doesn't smell like everyone else in the club. My only wish for this would have been for Mr. Gillotin to somehow incorporate that iodine note of the ink that is so prevalent in a tattoo shop that would have really made this scent tattooed.
Ed Hardy for Women
For the women's fragrance Caroline Sabas was the perfumer chosen, She has created scents for Britney Spears, Shania Twain and J Lo, and is no stranger to making edgy scents as her best scent to date is Fresh Cannabis Santal. I was looking forward to seeing what her take would be on the Ed Hardy esthetic as she described hers as "Tattooed Fruity Floral". The top of this is the promised fruity in fact it is a fruit basket cornucopia of fruity as I smell apple, grapefruit, strawberry and mango. Just as in the men's version the interesting part happens in the transition to the heart. Here I recognize the note as freesia and it brings a much needed edge to a scent marketed as tattooed. Finally the notes settle in to a pretty standard vanilla base with a little amber which is the one note which ties both of the scents together. Right at the top I had to keep checking that I sprayed the right sample. I kept thinking that this came from a tattoo shop run by Martha Stewart. The beginning of this is so dominated by a fruit medley that it is hard to think of it as a scent based on tattoos. So I quit thinking about that. I would describe this scent as a typical gourmand with intense fruits which lead to a typical ambery vanilla base. The real star here is the freesia in the heart because it takes what would be just another gourmand and draws a stark line between the development from fruit to vanilla and that makes this a better than average women's designer scent. This will particularly be loved by women who have other gourmands on their dressing table. My concern here is the audience that would really like this one is unlikely to match this kind of scent with the "love kills slowly" packaging. I think Ms. Sabas has made a lovely fragrance but she maybe should've waited for Rachel Ray to need a signature scent before using this composition as it feels more pie shop than tattoo shop.
To purchase Ed Hardy fragrances, shop online at the Official Ed Hardy by Christian Audigier site,
www.edhardyshop.com